The present invention relates to a method for managing subscriptions on a security element of a mobile end device. The invention further relates to a system that is adapted to carry out the respective method.
The growing number of highly mobile, always connected wireless devices and services such as medical equipment, smart meters, smart phones, tablets, and financial tools are exponentially expanding the demand for wireless access to high-quality mobile networks.
The quality of service provided by a mobile network and an associated subscription varies depending on parameters such as location, time periods, and data usage. Also, different services executed on the mobile end device may have different quality requirements on the mobile network connection. Further, it is also likely that the quantity of available mobile networks for an end device may change during the lifetime of the mobile end device, even though the mobile end device location is not changed.
In general, however, settings relating to the mobile network and subscription to be used for a mobile end device are predefined, e.g. by the personalization settings of the particular security element of the mobile end device. Changing such a setting on the fly is a technically complicated task. Typically, a mobile end device only supports one active subscription at a time.